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Pashinyan calls first results of early parliamentary elections victory of the people

Acting Prime Minister of Armenia made this statement after the publication of the first data of the vote, according to which his Civil Contract party is in the lead

YEREVAN, June 21. /TASS/. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan called the preliminary results of early parliamentary elections held on Sunday the victory of the people.

He made this statement after the publication of the first data of the vote, according to which his Civil Contract party is in the lead.

"The Armenian people made their choice, what was predicted happened. And we predicted that during these elections the people of Armenia would get the victory, and this has happened," he said.

Moreover, Pashinyan said his party will form a majority in parliament. He was speaking at the headquarters of the Civil Contract party following the early parliamentary elections held in the country on June 20.

"It is already clear that the Civil Contract party has received a majority in parliament. All the votes have not yet been counted, but it is clear that we will have a convincing majority," Pashinyan said during his speech, which was broadcast on his Facebook page.

Pashinyan also stated that he intends to start political consultations "with all healthy forces that took part in the elections in order to understand their vision of the political life of Armenia." He also noted that the people of Armenia were "bound to get the victory, which happened."

According to the CEC, after processing almost half of the polling stations, Pashinyan's party is in the lead, gaining about 58% of the vote, while Kocharian's bloc has about 19%. Serzh Sargsyan's I Have the Honor alliance is gaining a little more than 5%, Gagik Tsarukyan's Prosperous Armenia party has about 4.5%, the rest of the political forces are not gaining even 3%.

Armenia held early parliamentary elections on Sunday. Twenty-five parties and blocs, including acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's Civil Contract party and Armenia Alliance, led by the country’s second president Robert Kocharyan, were contesting seats in the national legislature. A party needs to garner at least 5% of the vote to be elected. The threshold for a bloc is 7%. The country has over 2.5 million registered voters. The voter turnout at the end of voting was 49.4%

Under Armenia's constitution, if neither of the political forces manages to win more than 54% of seats, all parties will have six days to form a coalition government. In case the parliament fails to form a coalition of at least 54% of lawmakers, a runoff election will be called in 28 days. Two political forces that won the biggest number of votes in the first round of voting will take part.

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